I was born in Surinam in the Netherlands Antilles. During my childhood I sometimes felt totally confused, very anxious and often aggressive. I was already drinking alcohol as a child.
When I was 13 years old, I went live with my grandmother in Holland. That was in 1980. From 1986 I couldn’t live with her anymore. As a consequence, my depressive mood increased. I drank lots of alcohol and smoked 1 – 2 g of hashish per day. Soon I also took speed together with tablets (Valium, Rohypnol and Seresta), a year later also cocaine. In 1990 I developed delusions and hallucinations and ended up in a homeless shelter. In order to be able to finance the drug consumption, I burgled. An eight-month prison term left me totally apathetic and I was very close to committing suicide. In 1995 I started to smoke 2 – 3 g cocaine in the form of crack daily. In 1998 I was declared as unfit for work because of schizophrenia. During the months leading up to my introduction, I consumed 2 g cocaine, 40 – 50 ml methadone, 1 g of cannabis and 6 – 10 glasses of beer per day.
Shortly before Christmas in 1999, I was introduced to the teaching of Bruno Gröning. This started a turnaround in my life. My health improved noticeably and in December 2001 I was able to completely go without methadone and the antipsychotic medication, Orap. I also gradually reduced the dose of cocaine and was even able to get by without it for weeks. By the end of July 2002, I was able to completely stop using cocaine, hashish and alcohol without any withdrawal symptoms. Since August 2002, I have a steady job. All psychological disorders and illnesses have disappeared. I was able to pay back all my drug related debts of 7000
guilders.